Ohio development officials keep coming up with ideas purportedly designed to support the kinds of innovation (and employers) that will keep our economy growing and diversifying.

Last week, Gov. Mike DeWine announced another such project, with the launch of the Northwest Ohio Glass Innovation Hub, at the Owens-Illinois campus in Perrysburg. It will be, as a WTOL report put it, “a place for industry and academia to come together.”

With more than $31.3 million in state funding and more than $10 million matched by local companies, the possibilities are exciting — for high school students in that region as well as for the businesses involved.

“This is a collaboration; collaboration that will build on Toledo’s legacy as the glass capital of the world,” DeWine said, according to WTOL. “We believe we’ll propel this region to the forefront of glass and solar innovation worldwide.”

According to DeWine, the research hub will create 1,600 jobs, $284 million of economic impact and increase state tax revenue by $25 million over the next seven years. But even more exciting, DeWine said he plans to announce more innovation hubs throughout the state in the coming weeks.

Ohio is known for innovation, and each region of Ohio has its own industries and resources to help propel not just the Buckeye State’s, but our nation’s economy — provided these hubs become more than simply industry and academia operating in a stagnate and expensive bubble.

If done right, the hubs that pop up across the state could be real drivers of change. Here’s hoping that change will come to ALL of Ohio.